Ethio Telecom’s Annual Revenue shows 18.4% Growth

ADDIS ABABA- State monopoly Ethio Telecom, which will soon partially be sold to private investor, saw a 18.4% increase in revenues in the 2020/21 fiscal year that ended on July 7, versus the previous FY, announced its CEO.

Briefing reporters today, Frehiwot Tamiru attributed the rise in revenues to 56.5 billion birr for the financial year to its in-house three-year BRIDGE strategic plan and customers.

Ethio telecom launched the plan in 2019 to get ready for the competition following the government’s decision to liberalize the telecom market.

The state monopoly said the number of its customers grew by 22% in the just concluded budget year as compared to the previous one and reached 52.2 million.

The increase, Frehiwot said, has helped the company to achieve 101.7% of its revenue target for the period.

The revenues were collected from mobile service (47.5%), internet and data services (27%) while other services generated the remaining 25 % revenue, according to Ethio Telecom.

Last month, Ethiopia launched a tendering process for the proposed sell-off of a 40% stake in state-owned carrier Ethio Telecom to private investors, part of the government’s broader plan to open up the country’s economy.

As part of the broader opening up of the sector, Ethiopia is also moving to license private operators to compete with Ethio Telecom.

Authorities handed out the first private operator licence to a consortium led by Kenya’s Safaricom, Vodafone, and Japan’s Sumitomo.

 

(Featured Photo file)